The Age of Narcissism

December 05, 2016

Much has been written about this age of narcissism in which we live. Most of us have a level of "healthy narcissism" in us, but in today's world of mean tweets, excessive selfies, and strange talk of one's "net worth" in dollar amounts, this level of narcissism has risen to a dangerous level, especially in the United States of America, a nation who historically feels that it knows best for other countries.

I just finished reading an excellent book called The Spontaneous Healing of Belief by Gregg Braden. In the book, says that masters from our past such as Buddha and Jesus were "master programmers of consciousness" through the words they spoke and the lives they led. Buddha was formerly a prince who renounced his material riches to seek spiritual enlightenment and encouraged others to do the same. Jesus befriended fishermen and a woman, Mary Magdalene, and allowed them to join his ranks rather than seeking to please the powers that be - those in positions of power of the day. Both leaders were able to demonstrate humility through their powerful choices, words and actions.

My favorite part of the book is when the author is able to talk about the science of "religion" or spirituality by breaking down The Lord's Prayer to reveal a code that can be applied to our lives in order to change our beliefs and recognize the power within while tapping into a higher power. Most people believe that science and religion are mutually exclusive but I have never believed that they had to be so. Most Americans today worship science, in a sense, and hold it up on an altar, believing anything and everything that can be "proven" through experiments. While science obviously has a valuable place in society, so does spirituality - which is often relegated to the back burner of our lives.

Seeing a highly narcissistic person, Donald Trump, becoming president, has put me on another quest to understand why so many people voted for someone who seems to get away with and excuse every hateful thing he says and accept every narcissistic statements he makes and degrades whole groups of people and can incite a whole crowd to chant things like "lock her up" or "build that wall" or other divisive and hateful things. His ability to lead in this way reminds me of Hitler.

In my limited understanding, what I have come up with is that it is our nation's collective selfishness and narcissism that have voted this man into power. I have met millennials who hope they won't be forced to pay for health insurance that their employment, if they have such, doesn't supply. I have heard others who say that they can't afford their premiums and hope his "promises" of repealing Obama care will give them more money in their pockets. I have heard people, even women, say that a woman shouldn't be president. Most people just say, "Hillary is worse" because she is deemed responsive for the deaths of Americans in Benghazi, because she was glib about the e-mail scandal, because she is one of the "elite." It's interesting to me that Trump isn't considered to be "elite" given the fact that he was born into his riches for the most part and not only benefited from nepotism but practices it with his children.